Under The Mistletoe
by ThnksFrThMmrs87
Summary: The Glee kids may be awesome at singing, but they really suck at being sneaky. Things don't go as planned when they set their mistletoe traps


Note From The Author-- So I completely spaced doing this for my favorite holiday ever (Halloween) so I'm doing it for Christmas instead. I'll be writing a short Christmas/Holiday related one-shot for each and every category I usually write in. Number three is Glee :) I'm not sure how happy I am with this but you never know what can happen.

Disclaimer—I don't own the characters of Glee

Puck discovered that it was difficult to have a happy holiday of any sort when your best friend wasn't talking to you and the mother of your child wanted nothing to do with you. The bruises from the beating he'd taken from Finn had healed and the halls of McKinley High were decked to the nines but he was still in a foul mood.

He just wanted to be in his daughter's life. He wanted to be there for Quinn and make sure that his kid always knew that he loved her, but her mother wouldn't let him in. With everything that had gone down he wasn't even sure anymore if he wanted to be with Quinn as a couple, and God knew he couldn't talk to his best friend about it. The status of their friendship was another thing he was completely unsure about. The only thing he really knew was that he kind of hated life right then.

For her part, Rachel was completely torn. She was thrilled to have helped lead New Directions to victory and sectionals, and Quinn and Finn were broken up. Even so, Finn had barely spoken to her since the competition. They were still friendly but the leading man was too caught up in his own worries and pain to even think about Rachel most of the time; and the longing way he gazed at Quinn when he thought no one was looking made her heart ache. And on the other hand there was Noah. She hadn't known what to say to him when they passed in the hall right after the confrontation. What she had done she had done for selfish reasons, and it hadn't even occurred to her that Puck would probably be hurt in the process.

Needless to say the pair of them weren't exactly feeling the holiday spirit. Puck's sister was getting all excited for Hanukkah and he couldn't even manage to be happy about all the awesome food his mother was planning on making. Rachel was better at dealing with everything that was going on, but every time she saw Finn gazing at Quinn or Puck staring sadly at her belly she felt a twist of pain for her part in the mess that had been created. Not surprisingly it was starting to affect the Glee team, and they were all getting sick of it.

Setting mistletoe traps had been Kurt's idea. They all wanted Finn and Quinn to be happy and it seemed that the only way they were going to get them to deal with each other was to push them into it. It may have been over the top, but then over the top and completely fabulous were Kurt's specialties, and they loved him for it; particularly this time around. What hadn't occurred to them was the distinct possibility that their traps would snare the wrong couple.

Puck was staring rather intently at his shoes, a habit he had developed to avoid staring at Quinn, when he bowled into Rachel Berry outside the cafeteria. They went crashing to the floor, and the only thing he could manage to be gratefully for was the fact that him landing on her had at least kept him from getting screamed at for flashing Berry's panties to half the school. With a mumbled apology he pulled her to her feet.

"It's fine Noah," she told him as she brushed off her skirt. "Still better than a slushie to the face."

The reminder of freezing cold ice dripping into his pants had him wincing." Yeah, see you at Glee I guess."

They turned to go their separate ways and were surprised to find a crowd of students circling around them, blocking their path. Rachel's eyes automatically moved to search out icy drinks. "Noah…"

What had possessed him he'd never know, but he grabbed Rachel's arm and pushed her behind his back. He felt her face press against his back as she braced for slushie impact and stared at the closest to him. "What the hell is going on?"

"Ease off Puckerman, you're not getting a facial. You two are under the mistletoe."

He heard Rachel let out a little gasp and knew that she was looking up at the same thing that he had. They were indeed, standing under a sprig of mistletoe. How it had gotten there he didn't know, but evidently his fellow classmen had decided to be festive today. "You have got to be shitting me."

There was a clatter of footsteps and suddenly Kurt appeared in Puck's line of sight. "Oh no."

The wide eyed look was enough to tell him exactly what happened, and he was just about to give him a piece of his mind when Rachel stepped out from behind his back to stand next to him. "Kurt Hummel, if this is one of those ridiculous traps you wanted to spring I swear on my future Tony Award that I will trash your scarf collection."

Mercedes arrived on the scene in time to hear the threat and frowned. "Calm down Streisand it's fine." She looked around at the other students. "It's not for them so just let them go."

"But they like have to," a platinum blonde Cheerio piped up. "It's tradition!"

Seeing the perfect opportunity to screw with Noah Puckerman and the school's most obnoxious female, the others joined in her insistence. It started with one person, and suddenly the whole group was chanting. "Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!"

Puck swore he heard Kurt lamenting the loss of his scarves before he turned to Rachel. "They're not going to let us out of here are they?"

She looked up at him with a sad smile. "I don't think so."

"Let's just get it over with then. Not like we didn't make out for a solid week."

Rachel sighed. "As usual, your choice of words is stunningly romantic; but yes, I think we'd better."

The chant died down as they she raised onto her toes to press a kiss to his mouth. His hands went instinctively to her waist and for a second it was like all of the horrible crap that had gone on went away, and in the back of his mind it occurred to him that he had actually missed this. After all she wasn't that bad when she was like this.

Everyone was cheering when they pulled apart, and Rachel took her chance to whisper into his ear. "I'm so sorry Noah."

He felt a little pang as she said it, but he wasn't quite sure if it was because of the reminder or the fact that she seemed to feel responsible. "It's okay Berry, I'm the one who screwed up."

"But you want to do the right thing."

Those big brown eyes of hers were suddenly staring up into his and he nodded. "Yeah. I guess."

Rachel leaned up again and pressed a kiss to his cheek, knowing that Puck would just beat the crap out of anyone who saw it as a dent to his badassness as he liked to put it. Then she reluctantly pulled away from him as the circle around them began to disperse. "Happy Hanukkah, Noah."

"Back at you Berry."


End file.
